The true cost of the night's violence and vandalism across England began to emerge on Wednesday as hospital admissions and arrests were added up, streets cleared of burnt-out vehicles, and shopkeepers attempted to estimate their losses in ruined or looted stock and shattered premises.

The scale of the destruction in Birmingham, Manchester and Salford shocked morning commuters and prompted shopkeepers fearful of a repeat performance to board up premises at lunchtime.

Extensive trouble flared in Bristol, Liverpool and Nottingham, where the council leader said tactics used by the Met police in London – looters in the capital appeared initially to be left to help themselves in ransacked shops – had encouraged people in his city to do the same.

Council leaders in Manchester, Salford and Nottingham also warned that anyone convicted of rioting would be evicted from their council homes.

The violence also spread to Wales for the first time in the early hours of Wednesday, with an outbreak of arson and looting in Cardiff Bay. Smaller towns across England were also affected. In the Thames Valley region police reported "small outbreaks of disorder" in Reading, Oxford, Milton Keynes and Slough. In West Mercia extra officers were on patrol and 12 arrests were made across Herefordshire, Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin, and Worcestershire.

Manchester

Businesses in central Manchester were preparing for a repeat of the violence, which saw youths setting fire to a branch of Miss Selfridge and raiding shops selling trainers, jewellery and electronics.

Greater Manchester police have now arrested more than 100 people. The majority were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage while about 17 were arrested for public order offences. Those arrested were aged between 15 and 58, and seven were under 18, police said. Assistant chief constable Garry Shewan said the violence was among the worst he had witnessed. "What we have seen are serious and unprecedented levels of violence and criminality on Greater Manchester's streets," he said.

An 18-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of arson after police trawled through hours of CCTV footage on suspicion of the attack on the Miss Selfridge store. Shewan promised: "We will work just as quickly through all the hundreds of hours of material at our disposal to ensure the right people end up in front of the courts and face justice for their actions."

The damage to the city's business district was widespread. At a branch of the camera chain Jessops, unscathed the first night, store managers were preparing to board up again. The manager, Johnny Tighe, said: "We moved high-value stock off the shop floor and put wooden boards up over the windows by 6pm."

The looters who targeted Dawsons, a musical instrument store in central Manchester, knew what they wanted.

Breaking the giant plateglass windows, they pushed aside drum kits and pianos to smash display cabinets of computer equipment. Music has been Manchester's best-known export in recent decades, and the thieves knew what would sell.

Mark Taylor, the managing director of the chain of north-west stores, said: "Its expensive, portable and obviously highly desirable. All the synthesisers have been stolen, and the portable keyboards."

Neil Mutter, 58, the owner of the family-run jewellery shop AE Mutter, established in 1884 in the city's Northern Quarter, said: "I feel remarkably calm. We clean up and smile. I feel glad that the other businesses in the area haven't been targeted. Our customers have been brilliant. They have been calling in saying they have video of the people who did it and offering to help."

In Piccadilly Gardens, where youths confronted the police at night, hundreds of volunteers gathered with brooms to clean up, but found much of the work had already been done by municipal staff who volunteered their time overnight. Carl Austin, in an "I ❤ MCR" T-shirt, said: "We've come out not so much to clean up but to show solidarity. This isn't political. Its just youth running riot."

Addressing a crowd who gathered in Piccadilly Gardens, police faced calls for the looters to be sternly punished, whatever their age.

"They shouldn't just get away with a slap," said Paul Gaines, 54. He urged the public to face down looters: "We need crowds of people to say: 'Not in our city'."

Salford

In Salford's Shopping City, blitzed by looters on Tuesday night, traders were putting up shutters by lunchtime. The destruction caused greater disruption of daily life than in next-door Manchester.

Shops hit ranged from pawnbrokers and cobblers to a travel agent. The post office was shut after its windows were smashed. Residents said elderly people had been unable to collect their pensions.

Rioters had smashed windows to loot a branch of Timpsons before setting it ablaze. Darren Brown, area manager for the chain, said: "The cost of putting this place back together will be massive. It will also affect the confidence people have in coming back to Salford."

Police said they had not advised businesses to close early, but a self-imposed curfew took effect. Traders said the looters were unafraid to attack shops even in daylight.

Residents were dismayed at the damage done to the city's reputation. Anthony Kirwin, 24, who works at the Wilkinson bargain homeware shop, said: "Salford's not a bad place at all. I've worked here seven years. We have a lot of shoplifting, but stuff like this never happens."

Steve, a resident who refused to give his surname, said: "A lot of people say how much they love Salford – then why are they going out and smashing things up? If you were to line up all the people who did this we would know at

least 50% of them."

West MidlandsTrouble spread to the centres of West Bromwich and Wolverhampton although it was sporadic and largely contained. A quieter night in Birmingham was overshadowed by the deaths of the three young British Asians.

Shopkeepers have been froced to organise their own protection because of pressure on West Midlands police, who have made 303 arrests since Monday afternoon. Most of the damage was done on Monday night when looters managed to get into the Bull Ring centre and do £500,000 damage to Emporio Armani.

On Tuesday night, a similar strategy of a fluid mob using Twitter, BlackBerry phones and texts to outwit police and constantly regroup was foiled by Bull Ring staff although two doors were smashed in. Rioters found fences barring their way and four privately hired guard dog teams. Along the bazaar-like stretch of Soho Road in inner-city Handsworth, metal shutters and large groups of men played the same role for British Asian stores.

Bristol

In Bristol police released dramatic footage of a jewellery shop being looted in the city centre, and still images of 17 alleged rioters taken on Monday night, and urged the public to name them. The videos from CCTV systems in the Cabot Circus shopping centre capture a group of at least 10 men, women and youths, some on bikes, breaking through the window of the Thomas Sabo jewellery shop where thousands of pounds of goods was stolen.

Other CCTV images show masked men looting takeaway shops, others with uncovered faces, a man stepping out of a jewellery shop window, and suspects carrying electrical goods under their arms.

On Tuesday, all four party leaders on Bristol city council, the Liberal Democrat council leader Barbara Janke, Labour leader Peter Hammon, Tory leader Peter Abraham and Green party leader Tess Green, issued a statement condemning the violence, which has so far led to 24 arrests.

They said the violence was "shocking, yet relatively isolated" compared with other cities, and blamed it on "a small minority of opportunist anarchists".

Four men, including two 17-year-olds, appeared in court variously charged with criminal damage, assaulting a police officer, theft from a shop and violent disorder. Avon and Somerset police arrested 19 people on Tuesday night, when the central area of the city was smothered with police from across the west country. The force said it had taken "robust action to prevent repeat scenes of violence and disorder"

Liverpool

All that remained of Tuesday's unrest in Wavertree, near Toxteth, were scorched patches where cars had been set alight. On one street the shell of a torched VW Golf remained in a side street and many of the shops kept their shutters down. Some were boarded up after windows had been smashed.

Council workers were out from 5am clearing up, as the council held an emergency meeting to consider banning gangs from congregating in an attempt to stop a third night of violence.

Council Leader, Joe Anderson, said police would also be targeting individuals and talking to the parents of any of those identified as taking part in the violence.

Trouble flared in Toxteth, with rioters attempting to break into Asda and some local shops. An estimated 200 rioters were involved at the height of the trouble and 50 arrests were made, over half of them teenagers.

The fighting again centred on Lodge Lane, where the previous night's violence had started, with running battles with police lasting almost three hours. There was also trouble on the other side of the Mersey in Birkenhead, and

the town centre was sealed off.

Idris Majad, owner of a convenience store on Lawrence road in Wavertree, said the attack on his shop had cost him about £5,000. A refugee from Iraq, he had opened the shop just last month. "I came to this country for safety and when I got permission to remain I tried to invest. I borrowed money and I invested everything I had in this shop."

Nottingham

The Metropolitan police's tactics during the first three days of rioting in London were the "fundamental cause of the copycat violence" in other major English cities, said the leader of Nottingham council, Jon Collins.

He told the Guardian people across England had watched "looters helping themselves to all kinds of goods while people stood by in London. They thought may be I will try that here".

"My criticism of the Met police is the message that this sent out and it was the fundamental cause of copycat violence in a number of other cities."

Nottingham saw police stations pelted with stones and one in Canning Circus firebombed after 10 young people were arrested for climbing on to a school roof. Cars were also set alight. The Labour councillor said that cuts to youth services had also played a part. "It's the first time in years that we have had not had provision for children's activities since the government cut our funding. We have to accept that is part of the problem".

Police, who responded to 1,000 incidents, said more than 100 had been arrested in the city.Police cars with their sirens blaring raced up and down one of the main roads north out of the city centre during the afternoon in what appeared to be a show of strength.

Despite this residents who had been caught up in the trouble on Tuesday say that they will not be venturing out at night. James Walker, who teaches international students in Nottingham, said that he had ended up being locked up in a pub after a standoff between a group of "kids" and police.

"There were 16 kids all with hoodies shaking the doors and banging on them. It was a bad vibe last night."

Al Needham, editor of Left Lion, a local cultural paper, said that the problem was "that kids were playing cat and mouse with the police last night. You have a city centre that is basically detached from its residents with very expensive shops and bars. It's a no go area for these kids."

Cardiff

Police have stepped up patrols and heightened their surveillance of social networking sites after four incidents including arson and an attempted looting in the city last night.

South Wales police said they quickly suppressed "isolated" and "minor" incidents of disorder, including an attempted break-in of a JD Sports branch in Cardiff Bay and criminal damage at a takeaway in the Canton area. The first minister, Carwyn Jones, said the government was closely monitoring the disturbances.